


Afterschool Special

by la_muerta



Series: October 2019 Writing Prompt Insanity [9]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Attempt at Humor, F/F, F/M, Halloween, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, SHFallFic Week 5: Haunted, mention of gun violence in school
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 12:43:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21253592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/la_muerta/pseuds/la_muerta
Summary: School legend tells of seven haunted spots in Idris Academy - and what better night than Halloween to find out if all the stories are true?





	Afterschool Special

Idris Academy had a long and illustrious history, and was one of the oldest high schools in the country. The main building had been a seminary over two hundred years ago, then a catholic boarding school with separate wings for boys and girls, but it had eventually been donated to the State. The Academy had been converted to a public school after World War Two, and the school currently had no religious affiliation. It was open to people of all races and religions, and under the helm of the current principal, Luke Garroway, it prided itself on being inclusive to students and teachers alike. But having been around as long as it had, Idris Academy also had its fair share of ghost stories. According to school legend, there were exactly seven haunted spots - and what better night than Halloween to find out if all the stories were true?

At least, that was how Aline had convinced Helen to come along with her, although Helen had been expecting more making out and less actually wandering around the school in the dark. 

"Your mom is going to murder us if we get busted," Helen whispered.

"It's just some harmless fun," Aline replied with a laugh, her voice far too loud in the empty hallway. "We could just say we lost track of time while we were in the library... researching."

Helen snorted but let her girlfriend pull her along down the hallway. It wasn't completely dark of course - the green 'Exit' signs at the doors were always on, but the green light that they cast over everything didn't exactly make the place feel less creepy. They turned round the corner and Helen's heart leapt to her throat - there was a small group of people standing in the middle of the hallway. She grabbed Aline's hand, prepared to make a run for it, but to her horror Aline called out to them softly.

"Hey, are you guys ghost-hunting too?" 

All of them turned their heads in their direction. Helen did a quick headcount - eight of them, a mix of guys and girls, some of them holding hands. Logic caught up with her instinct to run - they had to be students as well, and had probably gotten the same idea as her and Aline since it was Halloween night. One of them broke away from the group, and as he came nearer, Helen saw that he was smiling at them in a reassuring way although he looked a bit intimidating because of his height and the punk-rock look he had going on with the leather jacket, earrings, and pink streaks in his faux-hawk. 

"Yeah, I brought my boyfriend and some of our friends over for a tour of the Academy," he said. "I'm Magnus."

Helen didn't recognise him, but that wasn't too surprising since there were more than a thousand students in the Academy. She and Aline were juniors, and this guy was probably a senior.

"Do you want to join us?" he asked.

It was on the tip of Helen's tongue to refuse - they didn't know them, after all. But wandering the dark hallways of the school would be a lot less scary in a bigger group. She exchanged a look with Aline, checking in.

"Sure. If it's no trouble," Helen said.

"It's no trouble at all," Magnus assured them. 

One of the guys, a blond jock-type wearing a red-and-white letterman jacket, slung his arm around his red-headed girlfriend and grinned. "What are we waiting for? Let's get this party started." 

They made a round of introductions in hushed voices as they walked down the corridor. They were all couples; there was Magnus and his boyfriend Alec, Alec's sister Isabelle and her boyfriend Raphael, Jace and Clary, and finally Maia and Simon. 

"So, did you guys bring infrared cameras?" Aline asked jokingly. 

"No, but Simon here has something for recording ghosts, right?" Jace said, thumping Simon hard on the back. 

"Can you really hear ghosts with that?" Helen asked curiously, peering at what looked like an old walkman in Simon's hand, the type that used cassette tapes.

"Yeah, like, totally," Simon said with a nervous laugh.

"Did you hear that?" Jace suddenly said. They all froze, listening for anything moving in the dark corridor. 

"Hear what?" Helen asked, eyes darting around nervously.

"Wait, I think the spirits are trying to tell us something," Simon said, brows furrowed as he listened to his headset intently. "Yes, I hear them! They're saying... they're saying Jace is an asshole."

Helen, Aline, Maia, and Clary laughed, and Simon scooted to the front of the group to escape Jace's wrath. 

They turned a corner. Behind them, in the hallway they'd just vacated, a large shadow moved, and the sound of heavy footfalls followed them. 

\--

Their first stop was the chapel, which had been built when the Academy had still been a seminary. It was large enough to hold two dozen pews, and in the day the light would cast rainbows over the polished wooden floorboards when it came through the stained glass. The old chandeliers had been retrofitted with LED candles now, and there was a large crucifix hanging in the front. There was a mezzanine level with a few more rows of pews, and a music room somewhere upstairs, making the chapel the site of two hauntings.

"The chapel is supposed to be haunted by a ten-foot-tall priest," Magnus said with a grin, which made Jace snigger.

"I mean, come on, nobody is ten feet tall," Jace protested when Izzy glared at him.

"What about the music room upstairs? Does the priest haunt that too?" Helen asked.

"No, it's haunted by a normal dude. Like, he died a few decades ago, before cellphones were a thing. His friends locked him in for a joke and he had an asthma attack, and, like, nobody realised until it was too late," Simon said. "I mean, that's what my notes say."

"Or he was making so much noise that the priest that haunts the chapel went up there and frightened him to death," Raphael muttered darkly.

"Oh no, poor guy," Aline said sympathetically. 

"Well, if you think about it, he gets to spend eternity doing the thing he loved - making music. That's pretty rad," Simon said. 

Helen laughed. "That's a really positive way to see it, it makes me feel a bit better about it."

"The music is pretty good. You should try to come and listen," Maia told Helen and Aline as they filed out of the chapel, and they couldn't really tell if she was joking. 

The chapel was linked to the oldest wing of the Academy, and all Helen knew was there had been a huge fire at least a hundred years ago, although it had been rebuilt since then. Helen had always thought that this block did always seem colder than the rest of the school and she noticed that Aline was definitely shivering. Helen took off her red-and-white letterman jacket and put it on Aline's shoulders, and Aline smiled at her. 

"Did a lot of people die in the fire here?" Helen asked.

"Actually, only two - a pair of siblings," Magnus replied. "The fire started in the middle of the night when everyone in the dorms were asleep, and the two of them were trying to make sure everyone got out, but eventually the younger sister succumbed to the smoke. Her brother waited for her to come back out, but when she didn't appear, he rushed back into the burning building to find her." 

"Wow. So they saved everyone?" Aline asked. 

"True heroes," Raphael agreed, managing to not sound grumpy for once.

"I don't know, the dude sounds like a real dumbass to me," Jace said, nudging Alec with his elbow.

Alec had been looking very uncomfortable with the whole conversation, but he grinned at Jace and nudged him back, and for a moment Helen stared at them. Two siblings - Alec and Izzy. Now that she thought about it, Izzy's high-collared dress did look a bit old-fashioned.

Just then, there was a distinct sound of a door slamming shut in the distance, followed by another, the sounds drawing closer. 

"Must be the wind," Izzy said lightly.

"You know, maybe we should go home," Helen said. 

"What? No!" Aline said. "Besides, we've been to three of the four places and we haven't seen a single ghost."

"Maybe you'll have better luck spotting a ghost at the next place," Raphael said sarcastically.

"Yeah, I vote that we keep going," Jace said. "The next one is my favourite."

\--

The next spot was the school field. Helen was on the school's women's soccer team and Aline was a cheerleader, so they both spent plenty of time here - had met on the field, in fact. But it was all dark now, the shadows making the familiar space unfamiliar. 

"Some quarterback died here, didn't he?" Aline said.

"Not just '_some quarterback_'. His name was Jonathan Christopher Herondale," Jace said huffily. "Got a neck injury in the first quarter of the state championship finals but didn't tell anyone, kept playing. Second time someone slammed into him in the fourth quarter, it broke his neck. His team would totally have won the game if they hadn't stopped it when he died."

"He _died_ and you're more concerned about whether they won the game?" Aline said, shaking her head incredulously. "_Guys_." 

"Is that why he haunts the place, because they stopped the game?" Helen asked absently, frowning at Jace's letterman jacket. Red-and-white jackets were really common, of course, but... 

"Maybe it was the highest point of his sad little life," Raphael suggested acidly. 

"Maybe because he had so much more ahead of him," Clary offered more kindly. 

"I think the ghost of the stairs has a sadder story," Aline argued. "You know, the one who haunts the stairs behind the bleachers that leads to the parking lot. She would've had a promising future ahead of her too, if her stupid ex-boyfriend hadn't pushed her down the stairs."

"That was the first of the Academy's ghost stories I heard when I was a freshman," Helen said. "I thought they were just trying to scare me when they told me that if I ever had to be in school till late and I was alone waiting for someone to pick me up, or if I was in the area and didn't feel safe, I should wait at the foot of the stairs and the ghost would protect me. A few days after orientation week, some guy tried to flash a couple of girls who were waiting there and he ran away screaming."

"I actually know one of the girls! Gretel said that the guy kept looking at someone who wasn't there," Aline said. 

"Do they really tell all the girls about the ghost?" Maia asked, sounding pleased. 

"That's pretty bomb," Simon said, giving Maia's hand a squeeze.

"But I don't think she'll have any reason to show up tonight. Not even for Jace," Maia joked. 

"Wow, thanks so much," Jace said, sticking out his tongue at her. 

"So that only leaves two more haunted spots," Helen said. "The Red Lady in the art studio in that block, who was stabbed to death by her psycho brother, and-" 

She stopped short, and Aline's grip on her hand tightened when she saw why. The lights were on in the windows of the haunted dance studio on the second floor. 

"Does that mean that the ghost is there?" Aline asked. 

Alec exchanged a look with Magnus. "I guess we should go and find out," he said, leading the way. 

\--

But to Aline's disappointment and Helen's relief, the lights were off by the time they reached the dance studio, and the door was locked. Much to their surprise, Magnus had the key, which meant that he was a member of the school's dance club, although Helen didn't remember him from any of the performances. They didn't turn the lights on, in case it attracted attention, but in the dark Helen thought there was something strange about their reflections in the wall-to-wall mirror that covered one of the walls. 

"Well, this ghost-hunting tour has been hashtag fail, but it's been great getting to know all of you. We should hang out together some time," Aline said. 

Before any of them could respond, the lights in the dance studio suddenly came on. Jace let out a sound that could have been a hastily muffled scream. 

"Mr Garroway! Oh my god, you nearly gave us a heart attack," Aline gasped when she saw that it was just their principal, then realised that they were probably in trouble. "Uh... I can explain. We were just... ghost-hunting."

"Ghost-hunting," Mr Garroway repeated faintly. But he wasn't looking at Aline - he was looking at Magnus, and Helen thought he kind of looked like _he_ had seen a ghost. 

"Hello, Mr Garroway," Magnus said with a smile, completely unbothered about being caught by their principal. 

Mr Garroway seemed to pull himself together and looked around at everyone in the room warily to finally focus on Aline and Helen. 

"I'm all for healthy curiosity, but you shouldn't be wandering around school property after hours, it's not safe," he said sternly. "I thought I heard someone in the hallway outside my office and followed them to the chapel. Was it you lot?" 

"I'm really sorry, sir," Aline replied, putting on her best innocent-yet-apologetic expression. "Please don't call my mom."

Mr Garroway sighed. "Well, I was a student here once, I get the temptation. Halloween ghost-hunts are a time-honoured senior year tradition in Idris Academy, although we didn't do it in my senior year."

"Wait, is that because you were a student here when the guy who died in this dance studio got shot?" Aline asked, wide-eyed.

Mr Garroway nodded solemnly. "The student who was shot was a very good friend of mine. Some kid brought a gun to school, not sure what he was planning - maybe he wanted to kill himself, maybe hurt other people. My friend tried to talk him out of it, just sat there for an hour trying to get the other kid to calm down. But when the police came, the guy panicked and shot my friend before they could get the gun away from him."

"I'm so sorry about your friend, Mr Garroway," Aline said. 

But Helen was only half-listening, because now that the lights were on she could see their reflections in the mirrors more clearly. Simon, Raphael, Izzy, and Jace looked more or less the same, but Maia's face was pretty bruised in her reflection. Clary was wearing a yellow dress but her dress was half red in her reflection, one of Alec's arms looked red and raw, and Magnus' white shirt was red in his reflection - with a perfectly round hole right in the middle of his chest. Then Jace shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and his head went lolling, the movement so unnatural and horrifying that Helen screamed.

"_They're_ the ghosts!" Helen shrieked, grabbing Aline and dragging her out of the room as fast as she could. The rest of them looked around in bewilderment. 

"Oh, the reflections," Clary said with a sigh. "Everything was going so well."

The ghosts turned to look at Luke expectantly, perhaps wondering if he was going to run too, but he stood his ground. Luke looked carefully at the reflections, then turned back to look at the ghosts. 

"Are all of you always together, then?" he asked.

"Pretty much," Magnus answered, then smiled at his old friend. "So, you're the principal, huh?"

Luke shrugged. "Life just happened that way. I did come up here a few times at night when I heard the rumours that this room was haunted, but I've never seen you."

"I was probably out wandering the school grounds. You know I could never stay still," Magnus said lightly. 

"I'm so sorry, Magnus. You didn't deserve to die so young," Luke said.

Magnus shrugged. "If I hadn't died and gotten stuck here, I would never have met Alexander. Maybe things just happen for a reason."

In the meantime, the rest of them were amusing themselves with their reflections, with Clary bemoaning the fact that her dress was forever ruined and Jace tapping his head to make it flop from side to side.

"Dude, that is super disgusting. But, like, if you had actually been able to detach your head completely, that would have been kind of cool," Simon said.

Raphael sighed and rolled his eyes. "I can't believe I'm saddled with all of you for the rest of eternity."

"Is it really that bad?" Izzy teased. 

"You are different, a diamond among stones," Raphael said, offering her his arm so she could slip her hand in the crook of his elbow. 

"Eternity isn't that bad, not when you have the right person to spend it with," Magnus agreed, smiling at Alec and threading his hand with his.

Alec smiled back and bent down to kiss him, and as Luke watched, the eight ghosts drifted out of the room and faded into the darkness of the hallway outside, the sounds of their chatter and laughter still echoing faintly in the empty room. 


End file.
